The provision of accurate information and communication technology (ICT) services in accordance with personal circumstances has become possible throughout all situations of human activity due to the development of technologies such as small servers, wireless communication, and mobile apparatuses. Surrounding “persons” and surrounding “things” may be used as items for indicating personal circumstances. For example, the user of a terminal is able to easily access desired information when such information is limited to photographs or documents to be provided to the terminal in accordance with the “person” near the terminal.
The following items have been proposed as technologies that used in detecting nearby “persons” or “things.”
For example, a technology has been proposed in which position information of a plurality of terminals is transmitted to a server so that the server determines if any of the terminals are in locations approaching each other, and when the server determines that the terminals are approaching each other, the results of the determination are notified to each of the terminals.
Further, a technology has been proposed for detecting a terminal present in the vicinity of a nearby terminal based on receiving a short-distance wireless signal, such as a Bluetooth (trademark) or WiFi (trademark) wireless signal, that is transmitted from a device mounted on the nearby terminal. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-311919 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2011-217128 are examples of prior art documents.